PUTRAJAYA: Former lawyer Datuk N. Pathmanaban and his farmhand failed in their attempt to overturn their death penalty for the murder of cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and her three aides in 2010.
In a unanimous decision, a three-member Federal Court bench led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat upheld the death sentence for the appellants.
"In exercising our judicial discretion and having regard to the facts and substance of this case, we dismiss the application. Thus the sentence is maintained," Tengku Maimun said after hearing submissions from all parties today.
Other members of the bench were Federal Court judges Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais.
Pathmanaban, 55, and T. Thilaiyalagan, 33, had filed an application to review their death sentence to be commuted to imprisonment following the Mandatory Death Penalty Abolition Act 2023, which took effect on July 4, last year.
On March 16, 2017, the Federal Court affirmed the convictions and death sentences of the duo and R. Kathavarayan for the murders of Sosilawati, her bank officer Noorhisham Mohamad, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, and her driver, Kamaruddin Shamsuddin.
The apex court, however, acquitted the third accused, R. Matan, citing that both the High Court and Court of Appeal had erred in convicting him and affirming his conviction and death sentence. Kathavarayan did not file an appeal to review his death sentence.
Lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad who appeared for Thilaiyalagan said his client deserved a second chance.
"Even though he is on death row, my client has been a good inmate," he said.
Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar, in pleading for the top court to uphold the death sentence, said that this was a gruesome and brutal case.
"There was violence used in this case and what seemed like a business dealing turned into the tragic deaths of all the victims.
"Sosilawati's daughter, in her victim impact statement, said she was so traumatised that she cannot even bear hearing the word 'Banting,'" he said.
It was reported that Sosilawati and her aides went missing after going to Banting for a land deal.
The four appellants were arrested and charged in 2011. They were accused of committing the murders at Lot 2001, Jalan Tanjung Layang, Tanjung Sepat in Banting, between 8.30pm and 9.45pm on Aug 30, 2010.
They were sentenced to death by the Shah Alam High Court on May 25, 2013, following their conviction for the murders.